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The UK NATIONAL LOTTERY scam
The UK NATIONAL LOTTERY scam
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These comments comes actually from Russia!


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Absolutely! We understand buying prior to trying something on can be a hesitation; thats why we offer Free Returns on all orders within the USA! Give us a call and we'll get your return moving along!Back to top
Yes. For complete warranty information, click hereBack to top
No. For security reasons, returns without a Return Authorization Number will be refused and returned to the sender. To request a Return Authorization Number, click hereBack to top
We accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover credit or debit cards and PayPal.Back to top
To request a Return Authorization your product must be within warranty and have proof of purchase. If your purchase originated through an authorized Lehigh Outfitters Dealer, you must return your product to the place of purchase. If you purchased through one of our websites please use our online RMA Request form. To request a Return Authorization Number, click hereBack to top
All Lehigh Outfitters sites are backed with sophisticated technologies that allow your personal and credit card information to flow through our site in a secure and protected method. Additionally, we have processes in place that block and shut down fraud orders.Back to top
Yes. And please note: If you choose to pay by debit card, the amount you charge will be put on "hold", meaning it will not be available to you once you place your order. Once your transaction is processed, the amount of the transaction will be withdrawn from your account and the original "hold" will be voided.Back to top
We value our customers at Lehigh Outfitters and we make every effort to calculate sales taxes on your internet purchases correctly. Your purchase is not exempt merely because it is made over the Internet or by other remote means. We calculate and collect sales taxes, based upon rates obtained from our third party sales tax rate provider, and applicable to your purchases ship-to address; in states which we have a physical presence. If you feel that we have calculated the sales taxes on your order incorrectly, please contact our customer service department so that we may bill you accordingly.Back to top
Yes, you should. If you do not receive a confirmation in your email inbox please check your "Junk, Spam or Deleted" Folder. Please check these folders, prior to contacting our Customer Service Department.Back to top
Gore-Tex booty liners are against leakage for 1 year. All other waterproof construction is guaranteed to be leak proof for 6 months from the date of purchase. After this time, it is recommended that you apply an additional layer of Silicone Water Proofing spray about every 6 months.Back to top
No. Lehigh Outfitters no longer offers resoling or any other repairs on our products. If your boots are within out 1 year manufacturing and material defect warranty, please see the returns/warranty section of our frequently asked questions.Back to top
Avoid extreme temperatures:
•Footwear should be allowed to dry naturally before they are stored and should not be stored near any heat source.
•Footwear should be stored at temperatures not exceeding 86 degrees F. and in normal humidity (below 70%)
Product Care:
•Cordura Boots: Use a soft brush to remove dirt and cleaned with mild soap and warm water. When dry, apply a coat of water repellant. This will help to maintain the color and camo pattern.
•Leather Boots: Use a soft brush to remove dirt; polish may be applied to cover scuffs. Use a good leather conditioner or a very light coat of oil to keep your leather from drying and cracking.
•Duty Shoes and Boots: Use black paste polish and a good leather conditioner about 3 times a year. Suede Shoes and Boots: First remove the dirt with the help of small suede brush. Apply some suede protector and clean it with a specialized cleaner. •Patent Leather Shoes and Boots: Clean it with a soft, damp cloth using diluted detergent. Add petroleum jelly to give it a shine. In the end buff it properly to remove the excess petroleum jelly.
•Hand Sewn Shoes and Boots: Remove loose dirt with a soft brush. Use a paste polish to cover scuffs. Apply a water repellant spray and a good leather conditioner about two times a year.
•Insoles and Footbeds: Remove foot beds from footwear after use. This allows perspiration to evaporate.
Please visit our dealer locator by clicking hereBack to top
Proposition 65 is the California Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 Health and Safety Code Section 25249.6 et al. Any company that , sells or manufactures consumer products in California, is subject to Proposition 65. Because Report Footwear sells products in California, Report Footwear is subject to Proposition 65.
Proposition 65 requires warning labels on any consumer product that may contain any of 800-plus chemicals that the State of California considers a carcinogen or a reproductive toxicant. For many chemicals there is no definable amount of how much of these chemicals must be present to be considered harmful. In some instances, the State of California has set threshold levels of certain chemicals to be safe but in general the burden is on a manufacturer or seller to prove that exposure of those chemicals in their product pose no harm to the consumer.
Why does Lehigh Outfitters put warning labels on products sold outside of California?
Through Lehigh Outfitters sales online, and other dealers within California, our products are available to be shipped and/or purchased in California. If our products are brought into California without the proper warning lable, Lehigh Outfitters may still be in violation.
How come I don't see this warning on everything I buy?
This is a California State Law and not a Federal Law. Companies that do not sell consumer products in California do not need to put this warning on their products.
Are Lehigh Outfitters Products Safe?
Our products are manufactured to meet federal and state laws for safety and restricted substances.
Where can I learn more about Proposition 65?
For more information about Proposition 65, visit the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment and here for a list of elements listed under Proposition 65

subset: commoncrawl


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Recall Brother Andy's "Leslie Nielsen Theory of NFL Refs." We laid it out this way in a post earlier this year:
Andy has a theory about NFL officiating. And once you hear it, I think it becomes hard to watch games without thinking it is true.
He says NFL refs are like Leslie Nielsen as the umpire in Naked Gun: They make calls that will generate applause from the home crowds. Someone who has more time than I do should look it up. Do home teams get more calls than away teams? I would guess that they do.
Then we got some scientific backing with this post, citing a Jason Wilde report.
"According to research done by The Dallas Morning News' Rick Gosselin, NFL officials have been harsher on the road teams than the home teams each of the past nine weeks, assessing more penalties for more yards to the visitors."
Well, it seems that Tramon Williams is now a believer in the Nielsen Theory.
Here is Tramon Williams on the crucial — and very questionable — 40-yard pass interference call. "Our legs got tangled up, but they're the home team, so there ain't much I can say about it."
Keepin' it Real, even though it's not Thursday. You have to love Tramon Williams.


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California Eastern Laboratories (CEL) is the exclusive sales and marketing partner in the Americas for Compound Semiconductor Devices from Renesas Electronics Corporation. Products include RF components and RFICs, optocouplers, solid state relays, and laser diodes and photo detectors.
CEL is now the gateway for TOKYO KEIKI RF Products in North America.
California Eastern Laboratories (CEL) designs and manufactures the MeshWorks™ and MeshConnect™ lines of IEEE 802.15.4, ZigBee®, Thread, and Bluetooth® Smart professional grade wireless solutions and participates in the ZigBee® Alliance, Thread Group and Bluetooth® SIG. CEL is ideally positioned to provide its customers with hardware and software products that greatly simplify design and reduce time to market.


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"Well . . . I can definitely feel a bit of adrenalin," says Yukari Sendo, savouring the mobile phone ringtone like a fine wine, "but it really doesn't make me want to do any housework."
She flicks through a menu of alternative tunes and settles on one that offers to improve her skin tone through the power of alpha-waves.
Ms Sendo and her friend Ayaka Wakabayashi are among an army of young Japanese drawn to the allure of "therapeutic ringtones" — a genre of melodies that promises to ease a range of day-to-day gripes, from chronic insomnia to a rotten hangover.
Japan is no stranger to bizarre phone fads but the popularity of the ringtones is perhaps surprising given the flimsiness of the science behind them.
Much of the tones' credibility rests in the solid reputation of Matsumi Suzuki, the head of the Japan Ringing Tone Laboratory, an eight-year-old subsidiary of the Japan Acoustic Laboratory.
Mr Suzuki's adventures in the realm of mood-altering ringtones follow a career at the National Research Institute of Police Science, where he made award-winning advances in the field of voiceprints. One of his proudest achievements was the development of a synthetic mosquito noise that is inaudible to Japan's over-60s but supposedly discourages teenagers from "congregating in parks at midnight".
A spokesman for Index, the giant Japanese mobile phone content provider that sells Mr Suzuki's ringtones, explains that while there is a shortage of actual experimentation, "the number of downloads suggests the ringtones must be working to a certain extent". Index's other innovations include an iPhone application that translates your dog's bark; the "Bowlingual" automatic canine interpreter draws on an database of woofs from dozens of species.
The tone that is said to improve skin mixes a burst of electro-Schubert with woodland noises such as birdsong and streams. "I suppose it might subconsciously make you think of washing your face, and that is good for the skin," said Ayaka. "At least, it would certainly send you towards the bathroom."
Ms Sendo and Ms Wakabayashi were marginally more impressed by the sleep-inducing and sleep-preventing tones, suspiciously akin to a lullaby and a dance track. The one with most practical use, they concluded, was the tone that scares away crows — the sinister jungle ravens that terrorise the dawn streets of Tokyo by pecking at bags of rubbish.
Mr Suzuki's latest ringtone has been timed to coincide with the Japanese hay fever season. The Ohana Sukkiri Melody emits a series of sounds at different frequencies "so that people can choose the sound that resonates most to their sinus and causes pollen lodged there to fall from the nasal cavity".
Index admitted that it had not conducted any research on how great a pollen deluge would be induced by the ringtone but said that it was "generally understood" that resonance would help hayfever sufferers if they brought the phone close to their noses.
When it came to testing the hangover chaser ringtone, Yukari and Ayaka were relieved from experimental duties. This popular application works through what Index describes as a careful selection of "pulse-melodies" chosen for their astonishing atunement to the body's "medical rhythms". Testers concluded that a fried breakfast, though less portable, still had the edge.


text: The General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) is a high-level modeling system for mathematical programming and optimization. It consists of a language compiler and a stable of integrated high-performance solvers. GAMS is tailored for complex, large scale modeling applications, and allows you to build large maintainable models that can be adapted quickly to new situations.


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Whether you are giving employees a holiday gift, thanking customers for their business or holding a fundraiser, make sure your gift reflects your true appreciation. We make holiday programs easy for thousands of companies big and small. The f.y.e. Gift Card is redeemable at over 1,100 stores nationwide and online at www.fye.com. f.y.e. Gift Cards are ideal for this simple reason: universal choice! With our large selection of music, movies, games and more, your recipients can find exactly what they want.
If you are Shopping with a SuperCertificate then there are NO ADDITIONAL FEES. Premium merchant cards are currently not available for redemption.
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mhill95149 wrote:Find the shot on Flickr and locate the "share" button. Click the BBCode button & choose a size (at or under 800 pixels wide please!) and select and copy all the text in the box. Come here and paste that in the thread.
Grab the link
Here's a link to this photo. Just copy and paste!
Grab the HTML/BBCode
Copy and paste the code below:


text:
A scale-out shared storage platform that provides high-performance file sharing, tiered storage and archive for demanding content workflows, ever-growing digital libraries and massive data repositories. It consists of two components, the StorNext Storage Manager and the StorNext File System.
Industry's fastest streaming file system and policy-based tiering software for large sets of large files.
High-performance shared storage designed to accelerate complex information workflows.
Durable online storage that scales more economically than primary storage with better performance than tape.
Scalable, high-performance shared storage powered by StorNext for collaborative workflows.
Massively scalable storage for long-term data preservation with best-in-class management, monitoring, and data security.
Easy and cost-effective on-demand access to cloud storage for increased flexibility, protection, and availability.


text:
Olia Lialina and Dragan Espenschied, Once Upon, 2012
Rhizome is a nimble organization that is passionate about the impact we can make in the field of digital preservation—yet the work we do exists outside the funding structures of higher education or institutional research. We think organizations like ours play an important role in the ecosystem of the digital preservation community. If you believe this too, please support us.
A message from Dragan Espenschied:
I was appointed Rhizome's new Digital Conservator in January, and though I've not even started yet, I've had a lot of encouraging feedback. People are enthusiastic about what this organization can do for the field of digital preservation.
Memory institutions are facing technical and conceptual issues in keeping their born-digital artifacts alive, in the sense that they can gain an ability to narrate, and the cultural relevance that they deserve. It is simply not acceptable that a history is constructed almost solely on the basis of enumerable, easily computable, decontextualized data; on most used search terms, ad banner clicks, video view counters—while at the same time, things that could actually tell us something of value are regarded as "ephemeral" by nature.
I strongly believe that designing the access to complex legacy digital artifacts and systems is the largest contemporary challenge in digital culture. Rhizome is one of the few places in the world that can conduct the research and execute the ideas that I believe can make a big impact.
Make a donation to support the sustenance and growth of Rhizome's digital preservation work in this next phase.
-Dragan Espenschied


text:
Your tax dollars at work
Paul Joseph Watson
November 30, 2012
With the Obama administration preparing to green light direct U.S. intervention in Syria, this is another reminder of where Americans' tax dollars will be heading – to support gangs of brutal extremist Muslim terrorists whose behavior is no better than the often vilified Bashar al-Assad.
"New footage posted on the Internet appears to have been filmed by a Syrian rebel who points the camera along the barrel of his gun as he shoots 10 unarmed prisoners," reports Reuters.
The graphic clip shows prisoners lying on the ground begging for their lives before they are gunned down. One pleads, "I swear to God that we are peaceful," before being slaughtered.
After the massacre, the gunman shouts "Allah Akbar, Jabhat al-Nusra," referring to the Nusra Front, an Al-Qaeda offshoot that has claimed responsibility for innumerable suicide bombings in Syria that have killed hundreds of innocent people.
The massacre occurred in Ras al-Ain, a town close to the Turkish border that has seen fierce clashes between rebel forces and government troops in recent weeks.
"It certainly is a very disturbing video, and it is important to establish what happened," Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director at Human Rights Watch, told Reuters.
As we have previously documented at length, the Obama administration is funding and helping to arm Muslim extremists in Syria who openly display their contempt for the United States by burning American flags in public. Many of these militants are not even Syrian – they are foreign mercenaries led by Al-Qaeda terrorists that killed U.S. troops in Iraq.
The White House has signed off on over $200 million dollars in "humanitarian aid" that has gone directly to Syrian opposition forces. In addition, Obama recently rubber stamped a separate deal to use taxpayer money to support Syrian rebels with "non-lethal aid". The New York Times admits that the CIA is helping steer heavy weaponry to the rebels on the Turkish border paid for by Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
Western leaders have completely failed to condemn the plethora of bombings, assassinations, massacres and brutal acts of torture carried out by these "rebels" and in some cases have all but lauded their acts of savagery.
Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.
The Emergency Election Sale is now live! Get 30% to 60% off our most popular products today!


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This is a hilarious video from AFV of a guy testing out the 6 stages of a dog shock collar! SO FUNNY! This is a clean video, safe for your family to watch...
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
AFV Dog Shock Collar
Wednesday, January 31, 2007 No comments
This is a hilarious video from AFV of a guy testing out the 6 stages of a dog shock collar! SO FUNNY! This is a clean video, safe for your family to watch...
Tough Guy Race
Wednesday, January 31, 2007 Ouch , Sports 2 comments
The Tough Guy Race is since 1986 an annually taking place event in Hindernisrennen in the proximity of the city Wolverhampton with Birmingham. Running goes to large property over 12 kilometers on a 150 hectare. There are 21 hard obstacles that must be overcome. The participants must crawl under 50 centimeters to deeply fastened Stacheldraht by the Matsch, by tunnels from a meter extent creep, under a timber bridge through in ice-cold pools dip, on 10 meters height climb, from 3 meters height rope themselves and under a Elektrozaun creep. Finally the participants must run by burning hay bundles.
Running was developed by Billy Wilson. He was in the royal infantryman Guards and sketched Trainingscamps for elite troops.
The participation fees is 70 € Euro which go to different charitable federations.
To particpate in the race visit: toughguy.co.uk
Monday, January 29, 2007
Eletro Spider Bot
Lego Aircraft Carrier
Monday, January 29, 2007 Amazing , Art , Creative , Design , Illusions and Tricks , Lego 23 comments
The aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman which is made from 200,000 lego Bricks, 16.4 Feet long, movable elevators and radar dishes, electric lights on the flight deck, in the hangar, and inside the aircraft and motorized catapult.
To view more of Lego Aircraft Carrier photos: brickshelf.com
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Major Lazer Fights to Free the Universe from General Rubbish at the Roseland Theater
Rose City — Late like usual. Still trying to figure out how pedestrians work in these parts. Smiled at the cross dresser huffing a fag before hustling up the street. Dodged a few bumscussions before turning the corner to follow … Continue reading
Posted in Electrocution, Muzak, Politickle Tagged dancehall, diplo, electronica, free the universe, jillionaire, live, major lazer, musick, pdx, portland, reggae, rose city, roseland theater, secret zombie war, walshy fire, womps Leave a comment


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An Outcast Among Peers Gains Traction on Alzheimer's Cure – WSJ.com
By JEANNE WHALEN
Some people collect stamps, others vintage cars. As a young Ph.D. student at Cambridge University in the 1980s, Claude Wischik was on a mission to collect brains.
It wasn't easy. At the time, few organ banks kept entire brains. But Dr. Wischik, an Australian in his early 30s at the time, was attempting to answer a riddle still puzzling the scientific community: What causes Alzheimer's disease? To do that, Dr. Wischik needed to examine brain tissue from Alzheimer's patients soon after death. That meant getting family approvals and enlisting mortuary technicians to extract the brains, he says, "no matter the time of day or night." And it wasn't just a few brains: he collected more than 300 over about a dozen years.
He also embraced an idea that, if he is right, could ultimately spin Alzheimer's research on its heels—and raise new hopes for the roughly 36 million people world-wide afflicted with Alzheimer's or dementia.The 63-year-old researcher believes that a protein called tau—which forms twisted fibers known as tangles inside the brain cells of Alzheimer's patients—is largely responsible for driving the disease. It is a theory that goes against much of the scientific community: For 20 years, billions of dollars of pharmaceutical investment has supported a different theory that places chief blame on a different protein, beta amyloid, which forms sticky plaques in the brains of sufferers. But a string of experimental drugs designed to attack beta amyloid have failed recently in clinical trials, including two this summer from Eli Lilly & Co. and a partnership involving Pfizer Inc., Johnson & Johnson and Elan Corp.
After years on the sidelines, Dr. Wischik, who now lives in Scotland, sees this as tau's big moment. The company he co-founded 10 years ago, TauRx Pharmaceuticals Ltd., has developed an experimental Alzheimer's drug that it will begin testing in the coming weeks in two large clinical trials. Slowly, other companies are boosting investment in tau research, too. This summer, Roche Holding AG bought the rights to a type of experimental tau drug from Switzerland's closely held AC Immune SA.
History is peppered with examples of scientists who struggled against a prevailing orthodoxy, only to be proved right. In 1854, British doctor John Snow traced a cholera outbreak in London to a contaminated water supply, but his discovery was rejected by other scientists, who believed bad vapors in the air caused the disease. In the 1880s, cholera was finally pegged to bacteria found in contaminated water. In 1982, when two Australian scientists declared that bacteria caused peptic ulcers, conventional wisdom had it that stress and lifestyle were to blame. The scientists won the 2005 Nobel Prize in medicine for their discovery.
It is far from clear whether Dr. Wischik will join their ranks. Although interest in tau is building, opinions about the cause of Alzheimer's remain deeply divided. Some scientists believe an interaction between beta amyloid and tau plays a central role. Others think there are many possible triggers, including some beyond beta amyloid or tau.
Dr. Wischik says he and other tau-focused scientists have been shouted down over the years by what he calls the "amyloid orthodoxy," a hard-charging group of researchers who believed passionately that beta amyloid was the chief cause of the disease. "Science is politics," he says. "And the politics of amyloid won."
Yet Dr. Wischik has also been hampered by inconclusive research. A small clinical trial of TauRx's drug in 2008 produced encouraging, but mixed, results. What's more, plenty of influential scientists still are backing the idea that beta amyloid plays a central role. Although Roche is investing in tau, Richard Scheller, head of drug research at Roche's biotech unit, Genentech, says the company still is a strong believer in beta amyloid. He thinks amyloid drugs need to be tested on Alzheimer's patients much earlier in the disease cycle in order to prove effective; Roche recently announced plans to conduct such a trial.
Drugs tied to conventional theories on Alzheimer's causes haven't been effective.
Meanwhile, scientists Dr. Wischik accuses of wrongly fixating on beta amyloid, such as Harvard neurologist Dennis Selkoe, say the evidence for pursuing amyloid is strong. "Claude I think sees the world somewhat darkly…if we've made our case more potently for [beta amyloid], there is nothing wrong with that," Dr. Selkoe says. He adds that he supports tau research, as well, and believes drugs to attack both beta amyloid and tau will be necessary.
Alzheimer's disease is the leading cause of dementia in the elderly, and according to the World Health Organization, the cost of caring for dementia sufferers totals about $600 billion each year world-wide. The disease was first identified in 1906 by German physician Alois Alzheimer, who studied the brain of a deceased woman who had suffered from dementia and documented the plaques and tangles that riddled the tissue. The following decades brought few advancements in understanding the disease, in part because of the difficulty of studying the human brain, which unlike other tissues cannot be biopsied and examined until after death.
Still, in the 1960s, British scientist Martin Roth and colleagues showed that the degree of clinical dementia was worse for patients with more tangles in the brain. In the 1980s, Dr. Wischik joined Dr. Roth's research group at Cambridge University as a Ph.D student, and was quickly assigned the task of determining what tangles were made of, which launched his brain-collecting mission, and years of examining tissue.
Finally, in 1988, he and colleagues at Cambridge published a paper demonstrating for the first time that the tangles first observed by Alzheimer were made at least in part of the protein tau. Later research identified tau as the main ingredient. Like all of the body's proteins, tau has a normal, helpful function—working inside neurons to help stabilize the fibers that connect nerve cells. But when it misfires, tau can clump together to form harmful tangles that kill brain cells.
Dr. Wischik's discovery was important news in the Alzheimer's field: identifying the makeup of tangles made it possible to start developing ways to stop their formation. But by the early 1990s, tau was overtaken by another protein: beta amyloid.
Several pieces of evidence convinced an influential group of scientists that beta amyloid was the primary cause of Alzheimer's. Among these was the discovery of several genetic mutations that all but guaranteed a person would develop a hereditary type of the disease. These mutations also appeared to increase the production or accumulation of beta amyloid in the brain, leading scientists to believe that amyloid deposits were the main cause of the disease.
The so-called "amyloid hypothesis" quickly gripped the field, and attacking the protein became the main strategy for fighting Alzheimer's. Athena Neurosciences, a biotech company whose founders included Harvard's Dr. Selkoe, focused in earnest on developing drugs to attack amyloid. Meanwhile, tau researchers say they found it hard to get research funding or to publish papers in medical journals.
"It was very difficult to have a good publication on tau, because the amyloid cascade was like a dogma," says Luc Buee, a tau-focused researcher at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research. "For 15 years if you were not working in the amyloid field you were not working on Alzheimer's disease."
Dr. Wischik and his colleagues fought to keep funding from the UK's Medical Research Council for the repository of brain tissue they maintained at Cambridge, he says. The brain bank became an important tool. In the early 1990s, Dr. Wischik and his colleagues compared the postmortem brains of Alzheimer's sufferers against those of people who had died without dementia, to see how their levels of amyloid and tau differed. They found that both healthy brains and Alzheimer's brains could be filled with amyloid plaque, but only Alzheimer's brains contained aggregated tau. What's more, as the levels of aggregated tau in a brain increased, so did the severity of dementia. "We decided that amyloid isn't what is making people demented," Dr. Wischik says.
In the mid-1990s, Dr. Wischik discovered that a drug sometimes used to treat psychosis dissolved tangles in a test tube. He tried to set up a company to develop the drug as a treatment for Alzheimer's, but found that American and British venture capitalists wanted to invest in amyloid projects, not tau.
By 2002, Dr. Wischik scraped together about $5 million from Asian investors with the help of a Singaporean physician who was the father of a classmate of Dr. Wischik's son in Cambridge. TauRx is based in Singapore but conducts most of its research in Aberdeen, Scotland.
As his tau effort launched, early tests of drugs designed to attack amyloid plaques were disappointing. A vaccine developed by Athena Neurosciences failed to improve patients' cognitive function in a trial that ended in 2002.
To better understand these results, a team of British scientists largely unaffiliated with Athena or the failed clinical trial decided to examine the brains of patients who had participated in the study. They waited for the patients to die, and then, after probing the brains, concluded that the vaccine had indeed cleared amyloid plaque but hadn't prevented further neurodegeneration.
Commitment to the amyloid hypothesis persisted, however. Peter Davies, an Alzheimer's researcher at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset, NY, recalls hearing a researcher at a conference in the early 2000s concede that his amyloid research results "don't fit the hypothesis, but we'll keep going till they do."
"I just sat there with my mouth open," he recalls.
In 2004, TauRx began a clinical trial of its drug, called methylene blue, in 332 Alzheimer's patients. Around the same time, a drug maker called Elan Corp., which had bought Athena Neurosciences, began a trial of an amyloid-targeted drug called bapineuzumab in 234 patients.
A key moment came in 2008, when Dr. Wischik and Elan presented results of their studies at an Alzheimer's conference in Chicago. The Elan drug failed to improve cognition any better than a placebo pill, causing Elan shares to plummet by more than 60% over the next few days.
The TauRx results Dr. Wischik presented were more positive, though not unequivocal. The study showed that, after 50 weeks of treatment, Alzheimer's patients taking a placebo had fallen 7.8 points on a test of cognitive function, while people taking 60 mg of TauRx's drug three times a day had fallen one point—translating into an 87% reduction in the rate of decline for people taking the TauRx drug.
But TauRx didn't publish a full set of data from the trial, causing some skepticism among researchers. (Dr. Wischik says it didn't to protect the company's commercial interests). What's more, a higher, 100-mg dose of the drug didn't produce the same positive effects in patients; Dr. Wischik blames this on the way the 100-mg dose was formulated, and says the company is testing a tweaked version of the drug in its new clinical trials, which will begin enrolling patients late this year.
Meanwhile, drugs designed to attack beta amyloid have continued to disappoint. This summer, a trio of companies that now own the rights to bapineuzumab—Elan, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson—scrapped development of the drug after it failed to work in two large clinical trials.
Then in August, Eli Lilly & Co. said its experimental medicine targeting beta amyloid, solanezumab, failed to slow the loss of memory or basic skills like bathing and dressing in two trials involving 2,050 patients with mild or moderate Alzheimer's. Just recently, Lilly disclosed that in one of the trials, when moderate patients were stripped away, the drug slowed cognitive decline only in patients with mild forms of the disease. Lilly said it would talk to regulators before deciding what to do next with the experimental drug.
The trial failures have tempered support for the amyloid hypothesis, but there are still fervent believers who say beta amyloid needs to be attacked very early in the disease cycle—perhaps before symptoms begin—for such medicines to work. This spring, the U.S. government said it would help fund a $100 million trial of Roche's amyloid-targeted drug, crenezumab, in 300 people who are genetically predisposed to develop early-onset Alzheimer's but who don't yet have symptoms. Dr. Selkoe, one of the authors of the amyloid hypothesis, says this trial should help provide a "definitive" answer about the theory.
Scientists and investors, meanwhile, are turning more attention to tau. Roche this year said it would pay Switzerland's AC Immune an undisclosed upfront fee for the rights to a new type of tau-targeted drug, and up to CHF400 million in additional payments if any drugs make it to market.
Dr. Buee, the longtime tau researcher in France, says Johnson & Johnson asked him to provide advice on tau last year, and that he's currently discussing a tau research contract with a big pharmaceutical company. (A Johnson & Johnson spokeswoman says the company invited Dr. Buee and other scientists to a meeting to discuss a range of approaches to fighting Alzheimer's.)
With its new clinical trial program under way, TauRx is the first company to test a tau-targeted drug against Alzheimer's in a large human study, known in the industry as a phase 3 trial. With his passionate beliefs, Dr. Wischik admits he may be just as much a zealot about tau as he accuses others of being about beta amyloid. "I may be," he says. "In the end…it's down to the phase 3 trial."
Write to Jeanne Whalen at email@example.com
One Response to "An Outcast Among Peers Gains Traction on Alzheimer's Cure – WSJ.com"
I know this web site gives quality based posts and extra information, is there any other site
which gives these kinds of information in


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Don't Be a Menace to South (China Sea).
It addresses thorny questions regarding China as President Obama visits South Korea, Japan, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
I wanted to share five quick thoughts on the article, fully appreciating I don't have all the answers to this complex strategic problem.
1. "Many in China see the U.S. rebalance as ill-disguised containment, while many in the United States see Chinese military modernization and territorial assertiveness as strong indications that Beijing seeks to undermine Washington's alliances and drive the United States from the Western Pacific."
I agree with these statements as being perceptions by both sides, but I also think they are closer to the truth than what the authors believe. I recommend Dr Ashley Tellis' monograph Balancing Without Containment: An American Strategy for Managing China as the best strategy I've seen for handling this aspect of the problem.
2. "Compounding this challenge, the long-term intentions of both sides are inherently unknowable. The inclination in the face of such uncertainty is to prepare for the worst -- which all too frequently becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy."
I disagree that long-term intentions are inherently unknowable. Building on the first point, the Chinese want to project regional power without US interference, and the US wants to maintain the ability to protect power globally. That means the two sides will be in conflict in the South China Sea and other regional Chinese waters.
3. "That does not mean Washington must immediately unsheathe the sword if tensions escalate over China's actions near the Senkakus or disputed islands in the South China Sea, but it must make clear that it is prepared to impose significant costs if red lines are crossed -- which is why the response to Russia's actions in Ukraine is so salient to the situation in East Asia."
I believe many commentators and policymakers cringe at the term "red lines" when applied to the current administration. The President's use of the term with respect to Syrian weapons of mass destruction has weakened his position. Perhaps more importantly, just what are the "red lines" in the South China Sea? The authors recommend meeting alliance commitments, but what does that mean?
4. "U.S. allies in Asia worry that China's ability to impose economic costs against the United States might deter Washington from acting -- a concern exacerbated by U.S. and European caution in imposing costs on Russia. The late March expansion of sanctions against Russia should help reassure U.S. allies of Washington's willingness to accept the risks of economic retaliation in order to impose costs on those who cross red lines."
There are few similarities between the US-Russia and US-China economic relationships. The risks of economic retaliation from Russia are far smaller than those that could be applied by China. US allies should worry about China's ability to impose economic costs against the US, but that is tempered somewhat by the effects those sanctions could have against China itself.
5. "The United States and its allies also have an interest in reassuring China that if Beijing acts responsibly, they will not seek to thwart its future prosperity and security... These might include "Open Skies" reconnaissance agreements, where both sides allow territorial overflights to reduce concerns about concealment...
Just as important as formal agreements is the willingness of both sides to exercise restraint in defensive actions that might appear threatening; to enhance transparency to dispel misunderstandings; and to reciprocate positive actions to stimulate a virtuous circle of enhanced confidence. This might mean Chinese willingness to slow the rate of its military buildup rather than race for parity." (emphasis added)
What does "act responsibly" mean? In US eyes, it probably means the Chinese allow the US to project power globally, including in the South China Sea. As I mentioned above, the Chinese don't want this to be the case in the medium and long term.
"Open skies" agreements and "enhanced transparency" are non-starters for China, just as they were non-starters for the Soviet Union in the 1950s. Strategic theory explains why. China is militarily weaker than the United States. They fear that the more the US learns about Chinese capabilities, the more accurately and effectively the US will be able to target and neutralize those capabilities. The Chinese follow this approach with nuclear weapons and cyber weapons, as we saw with the latter recently (see Adam Segal's What Briefing Chinese Officials On Cyber Really Accomplishes.)
I see few situations where China would slow its military buildup, with the exception of nuclear weapons. With nuclear weapons, the important feature is a first-strike-survivable retaliation capability. The Chinese don't need to match the US warhead-for-warhead if the US knows we can't get away with a first strike against China. (To learn more about this dynamic, see Strategic Stability: Contending Interpretations.)
On the conventional side, the Chinese are more likely to try to outbuild the US, because they still lack a qualitative advantage compared to US forces. Given declining US budgets, the Chinese should be able to out-spend and out-build the US Navy and Air Force, the two most critical services for a future US-China conflict.
Overall, this is a very tough problem, but I recommend reading the piece by Dr Tellis for the best answer I've read concerning strategic approaches to the US-China issue in the South China Sea.
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Five Thoughts on New China Article
Posted by Richard Bejtlich at 09:47 No comments:
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Save interesting products in this list and find them quickly at any time.
Simply click on the watch list symbol
The narrow edges give shape to the weightless design of of the Venticello bathroom furniture by Villeroy & Boch. With a perfect feel for modern trends, Venticello impressively combines form and function. With its large model and colour range, the modern bathroom furniture fulfils the highest demands of individual bathroom design.
Whether for hand towels or shampoo, a stylish bathroom cabinet by Villeroy & Boch has plenty of storage space for everything. It makes it fun to keep things tidy and it looks good too. It's very easy to add highlights with shelves, tall and side cabinets by Villeroy & Boch. Select from many designs, sizes and colours to find the perfect cabinet for your bathroom.
The well thought out interior dividers in the bathroom furniture by Villeroy & Boch allow for an individual way to keep things tidy in the bathroom. Variably implementable elements such as adjustable glass dividers and accessory boxes in various sizes provide storage with order and a clear view. The practical interior dividers therefore ensure that you can find your frequently used bathroom accessories at a glance.
The modern SoftClosing technology closes drawers and doors silently and gently, even when force is used. The SoftClosing mechanism slows down the drawer and automatically closes it, slowly and silently – not only is it pleasant to the ears, it is also gentle on the bathroom furniture.
The full extension allows drawers and pull-outs to be opened to their full depth. This ensures that the entire contents is visible and convenient to reach. No annoying rummaging around in the back of the drawer – bathroom furniture with full extension gives you the full overview.
|400 mm
|502 mm
|17,9 kg
|Product designation
|Cupboard unit
right/left/middle, to attach to vanity unit. Wood. fastening set included. Handles: handle Grey. Equipped with: 2x pull-out compartments with slip-resistant base, 1x accessory box L. Equipped with: 1x accessory box L, 2x pull-out compartments with slip-resistant base


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Google has pushed an update to Google Glass users that upgrades the camera functionality on the device. This update brings HDR capabilities to the device as well as the ability to automatically sense and brighten low-light shots. This update also allows Google Glass to more easily capture photos that have lots of movement.
Aside from improvements to the camera itself, Google has also brought the ability to add captions to photos taken with Google Glass. These captions can be added to photos by a simple voice command.
Glass is a new piece of wearable technology developed by Google. The device is worn like a standard pair of glasses and pairs with the user's iOS or Android smartphone to connect to the web. You can use the device to send messages and update social feeds with a simple voice command. Glass also has a built-in camera and can run third-party apps that go under the name Glassware.
As of now, Google Glass is only being used by a small number of testers who paid over $1500 to be in the Explorer Program. The device went into the hands of these users in early 2013, though the device was originally announced at Google IO 2012.
Source: AndroidPit
Image Source: Giuseppe Costantino


text: Low Vitamin D Levels Early in MS May Predict Disease Activity and Progression, Suggests New National MS Society-Funded Study January 23, 2014 An international team led by Harvard researchers, funded by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the National Institutes of Health, has found that levels of vitamin D in serum early in the course of MS may be predictive of later disease activity and progression. Those with higher levels tended to have reduced disease activity and progression, and those with lower levels tended to experience more disease activity and progression. This study, which leveraged data from an industry-funded clinical trial, adds to growing evidence of links between vitamin D and MS. Identifying such lifestyle factors that can benefit everyone affected by MS is a priority area of focus for the National MS Society. Alberto Ascherio, MD, DrPH (Harvard School of Public Health, Boston) and colleagues report their findings in JAMA Neurology (published online January 20, 2014). Background: A number of genetic and environmental factors influence whether a person will get MS. Research is increasingly pointing to a reduced level of vitamin D in the blood as a risk factor for developing MS. Vitamin D is produced by the body when the skin is exposed to sunshine, and it can also be found in some foods. In lab mice, vitamin D supplementation can reduce the effects of an MS-like disease. In people with MS, high vitamin D levels have been associated with decreased risk for attacks and less severe disability. Clinical trials, including one supported by the National MS Society, are underway to test whether vitamin D supplements, added to standard therapy, can provide benefits to people who have MS. Although there are differences of opinion as to how much vitamin D is optimal, a deficiency is often defined as a serum level of less than 50 nmol per liter of 25-hydroxyvitamin D. The Study: This group sought to determine whether vitamin D levels observed early in the course of MS would predict later disease activity and progression. The study leveraged data accumulated from a completed clinical trial originally sponsored by Bayer called the BENEFIT study, which was designed to determine whether interferon beta-1b could delay the onset of clinically definite MS in people with a clinically isolating syndrome (a single neurologic episode indicating high risk for MS). Dr. Ascherio's team evaluated vitamin D levels among BENEFIT participants. A total of 465 participants had at least one vitamin D measurement taken, and 334 patients had vitamin D levels taken at both six and 12 months after starting the study. There were two groups of BENEFIT participants – one group received interferon immediately and the other group received it later. All participants were followed for 5 years. Dr. Ascherio's team looked for links between vitamin D levels and MS relapses, progression of disability (using the standard EDSS scale), and disease activity and tissue integrity observed on MRI scans. They compared outcomes for participants whose serum vitamin D levels were 50 nmol/l or higher with those whose serum levels were lower than 50 nmol/l within the first 12 months of the study. Among their findings, they reported that those with higher levels of vitamin D, regardless of whether they were taking interferon or not, were less likely to progress to the diagnosis of definite MS, had a significantly lower amount of new disease activity on MRI, brain tissue volume loss, and disease progression on the EDSS. Conclusions: These findings add to the growing evidence that vitamin D may help to reduce the effects of MS. Results from current controlled clinical trials now underway in people with MS should help determine and define the impact of taking vitamin D. Dr. Ascherio and colleagues comment on the work that is left to do. "Further investigations are needed to determine the optimal levels of vitamin D and whether results apply to different races or ethnicities, to patients with the secondary or primary progressive course of MS, or in combination with drugs other than IFNB-1b." Read more about ongoing research on vitamin D and MS. Read about (link to mom2011summer.pdf) recommendations for vitamin D supplements and people with MS.


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Topic: Complete domain alias
I'm trying to bind some domains together: one of my client registered five domains and he would like to receive mails from all his domains without having to use multiple addresses. I tried to add "enabledService: domainalias" and "domainAliasName" attribute for each domain but it isn't sufficient to receive mails from the domain aliases.
For example:
I have an e-mail address "firstname.lastname@example.com" and I would like to receive e-mail on the same mailbox using "email@example.com" too. I NEED it to work as a domain alias not a shadow user because I have dozens of mailboxes. How can I achive that?
I followed the guide Zhang published on the forum (http://www.iredmail.org/forum/topic354- … ckend.html) but it seems like I also need to put the "shadowaddress" attribute to each user to make it work otherwise postfix complains:
<email@example.com>: user unknown


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Ali's DIY Shelving
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Ali |
View all posts by Ali
33 Comments » | Published in DIY, General | 33 Comments
I know we are not out of the recession yet so I thought I'd share our DIY shelving project. If you have a drill to make some holes in a few wood boards, you can make this!
Here's what you need, all of which can be found at your local hardware store:
* 3 fir boards (good to let these dry out a bit so sap doesn't get all over your things)
* 6 all thread rods
* 36 sets of nuts and washers to sandwich the boards
* 6 coupling hex nuts to use as feet
* a drill
1.) Drill holes in all four corners as well as in the center edges of the boards. We stacked all three boards on top of one another so the holes would be placed in a similar spot on each board.
2.) Put a hex nut on each rod. Add a nut/washer above the hex nut. Insert the rods in the freshly cut holes of one of the boards. Sandwich the board with another set of nuts/washers.
3.) Add another set of nuts/washers to each rod placing the set at the midpoint of the rod. Top it off with a board and again sandwich the wood with the nuts/washers. Continue this process for the top board.
4.) Make sure you have some bad TV on in the background.
5.) Adjust the washers/nuts as needed so the boards are level.
6.) Clean up.
7.) Put the bad TV on your new shelving to test your work.
8.) Fill the shelving with your favorite trinkets!
I enjoy wood paneled station wagons, German food and senior citizens (I am 80 years old at heart). Nearly every weekend I am taking photos at other people's weddings and I have a blog of my own (but I don't update it often enough). I love to paint, sew and knit. Check out my DP Staff profile on Hatch.


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Back to Basics ~ tips and techniques to create a great loaf in 5 minutes a day.
Note that there is an updated version of this post, click here to view.
Recently we have seen lots of new readers on the website who are asking wonderful questions about how to perfect their loaves. First I'd like to say welcome to the site and thank you for trying the bread. As I bake through the basic Master recipe from ABin5 I will try to answer some of the most frequently asked questions and also introduce you to a few new pieces of equipment I've recently started to use that make the whole experience just a little easier. The goal is to create a large batch of dough that stores in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. That's why our method saves you so much time– all the mixing and prep is divided over four one-pound loaves.
Master Recipe from The New Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking:
3 cups lukewarm water (you can use cold water, but it will take the dough longer to rise. Just don't use hot water or you may kill the yeast)
1 tablespoon granulated yeast ( you can use any kind of yeast including: instant, "quick," rapid rise, bread machine, active dry, or fresh cake yeast*. We've always tested with Red Star Yeast and they have a new premium product called PLATINUM, which has worked beautifully in our recipes. You can also decrease the amount of yeast in the recipe by following the directions here. Or you can bake with a sour dough starter, see instructions here.)
*If you use cake yeast you will need 1.3 ounces.
1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons Morton Kosher Salt (adjust to suit your taste or eliminate it all together. Find more information here)
6 1/2 cups (2-pounds) all-purpose flour (we tested the recipes with typical supermarket flour. If you use a higher protein flour check here)
Mixing the dough:
In a 5 or 6 quart bowl or lidded Food Storage Container, dump in the water and add the yeast and salt. Because we are mixing in the flour so quickly it doesn't matter that the salt and yeast are thrown in together.
(If you are using the fresh cake yeast break it up with a spoon)
Dump in the flour all at once and stir with a long handled wooden spoon or a Danish Dough Whisk, which is one of the tools that makes the job so much easier!
Stir it until all of the flour is incorporated into the dough, as you can see it will be a wet rough dough.
Put the lid on the container, but do not snap it shut. You want the gases from the yeast to escape. (I had my husband put a little hole in the top of the lids so that I could close the lids and still allow the gases to get out. As you can see it doesn't take much of a hole to accomplish this.)
Allow the dough to sit at room temperature for about 2 hours to rise. When you first mix the dough it will not occupy much of the container.
But, after the initial 2 hour rise it will pretty much fill it. (If you have decreased the yeast you will have to let it go longer than 2 hours.) DO NOT PUNCH DOWN THE DOUGH! Just let it settle by itself.
The dough will be flat on the top and some of the bubbles may even appear to be popping. (If you intend to refrigerate the dough after this stage it can be placed in the refrigerator even if the dough is not perfectly flat. The yeast will continue to work even in the refrigerator.) The dough can be used right after the initial 2 hour rise, but it is much easier to handle when it is chilled. It is intended for refrigeration and use over the next two weeks, ready for you anytime. The flavor will deepen over that time, developing sourdough characteristics.
The next day when you pull the dough out of the refrigerator you will notice that it has collapsed and this is totally normal for our dough. It will never rise up again in the container.
Dust the surface of the dough with a little flour, just enough to prevent it from sticking to your hands when you reach in to pull a piece out.
You should notice that the dough has a lot of stretch once it has rested. (If your dough breaks off instead of stretching like this your dough is probably too dry and you can just add a few tablespoons of water and let it sit again until the dough absorbs the additional water.)
Cut off a 1-pound piece of dough using kitchen shears* and form it into a ball. For instructions on how to form the ball watch one of our videos. Place the ball on a sheet of parchment paper… (or rest it on a generous layer of corn meal on top of a pizza peel.)
*I actually use a pair of Sewing Shears because I like the long blade. I just dedicated a pair to the kitchen.
Let the dough rest for at least 40 minutes, (although letting it go 60 or even 90 minutes will give you a more open hole structure in the interior of the loaf. This may also improve the look of your loaf and prevent it from splitting on the bottom. ) You will notice that the loaf does not rise much during this rest, in fact it may just spread sideways, this is normal for our dough.
You can also try our "refrigerator rise trick," shaping the loaves and then immediately refrigerating them overnight. By morning, they'll have risen and are ready for the oven after a brief room-temp rest while the oven preheats (click for instructions).
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees with a Baking Stone* on the center rack, with a metal broiler tray on the bottom (never use a glass vessel for this or it will shatter), which will be used to produce steam. (The tray needs to be at least 4 or 5 inches away from your stone to prevent it from cracking.)
*(or Cast Iron Pizza Pan– which will never crack and conducts heat really well. Be careful to dry it after rinsing with water or it will rust)
Cut the loaf with 1/4-inch slashes using a serrated knife. (If your slashes are too shallow you will end up with an oddly shaped loaf and also prevent it from splitting on the bottom.)
Slide the loaf into the oven onto a preheated stone (the one I'm using is the cast iron) and add a cup of hot water to the broiler tray. Bake the bread for 30-35 minutes or until a deep brown color. As the bread bakes you should notice a nice oven spring in the dough. This is where the dough rises. To insure that you get the best results it is crucial to have an Oven Thermometer to make sure your oven is accurate.
If you used parchment paper you will want to remove it after about 20-25 minutes to crisp up the bottom crust. Continue baking the loaf directly on the stone for the last 5-10 minutes.
Allow the loaf to cool on a rack until it is room temperature. If you cut into a loaf before it is cooled you will have a tough crust and a gummy interior. It is hard to wait, but you will be happy you did! Make sure you have a nice sharp Bread Knife that will not crush the bread as you cut. Or you can tear it apart as they do in most of Europe.
If you have any leftover bread just let it sit, uncovered on the cutting board or counter with the cut side down. If you cover a bread that has a crust it will get soggy.
Enjoy and have fun baking. Bread that is made with love and joy tastes better!
Note: Red Star Yeast is a sponsor of this website and its promotional activities, and provided samples of yeast for recipe testing.


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We are continuing to witness one of the most hyped, hyperbole-infused, and intensely watched industry battles, or "Religious Wars", over what mobile platforms will triumph.
Ensconced in these wars are a myriad of battles across a very broad landscape of industry titans and emerging disruptors, from Steve Jobs lashing out at Flash, to Zuck's recent public flogging of HTML5, to the collapse of Nokia and RIM, to the high-stakes patent wars among CE and tech companies. This is surely an epic time in our industry.
This war impacts every company on the planet. Importantly, as institutions seek to interact with their users and constituents, they must build applications to reach these users. We're talking about an enormous impact on IT labor markets on a global basis. In a deflated macro-economy that requires increasing productivity from our workforce, increased global competitiveness for talent, software developers and their choices of which platforms and technologies to build on are having a huge impact everywhere in the world. And this army of technical knowledge bearers may well be at the foundation of what will dig us out of this economic pit.
Who or what platform wins? What wins is what gains favor with two constituents: 1) consumers / end-users, and 2) developers; and in that order. With no single company dominating across all categories of devices, app publishers must build for multiple consumer device platforms -- PCs, smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs. To take advantage of these consumer devices and to provide the best user experience and functionality, developers should be building hybrid apps that fuse HTML5 and native code, providing maximum cross-platform leverage, while going native where it counts.
More on hybrid apps later. To understand these shifts, let's quickly review contemporary history on how we got here.
The first and most well-understood shift happened with Apple's launch of the iPhone and associated App Store model for software distribution. Thus began the wave of debate between native apps and open HTML5.
The second fault-line occurred as many in the industry responded to Apple by forming an open industry alliance around Google's quasi-open Android alternative. The debate then evolved to be not just HTML5 vs. native, but iOS vs. Android vs. XYZ OS.
With the launch of the iPad came the infamous Steve Jobs assault on Flash, if not Adobe, further forcing choices for developers between native and HTML5. It also signaled that these battles were not just about "mobile", but also about the future of consumer software on every Internet device.
And the proliferation has continued unabated -- smart TVs from Samsung, LG and others; Windows 8 (in its multiple form factors); Xbox and Playstation; and, of course, the great hope offered by Apple TV, which I've written about and we have been working on extensively.
The discussion and debates that we see in public, in the trade press and carried out on sites like StackOverflow, are just a mirror of the discussions and debates happening inside of nearly every company in the world. Our technical leaders are consumed with these debates.
The Emergence of Hybrid App Development
The real answer to these religious platform wars is an ecumenical solution – hybrid apps. It's not HTML5 vs. native, it's actually both HTML5 and native. HTML5 is great for rapid, iterative and cross-platform user experiences, especially for apps that involve content. Native gives you power, performance and device features. Hybrid apps give you both – user experience and design with Web development and access to native devices and native code for what's needed.
In many respects, hybrid apps are much like Web apps that involve a front-end and back-end component, with tiers of presentation and back-end logic, and often with tiers of developer and programming language skill sets and related tooling.
And just like the religious and political tensions that inform our global body politic, we need ecumenical and bi-partisan solutions to our global app development challenges! Hybrid Apps offer us the greatest hope, and we need the industry to do their part and really truly and deeply get behind supporting the Hybrid App model -- yes, innovate with proprietary hardware and software features, but surface that proprietary innovation through high-performance JavaScript features and great embedded HTML5 runtime support that isn't treated like a second class citizen on your operating platforms.
Hybrid App Platforms Today
Over the past several years, a number of solutions have emerged to try and address this quagmire. The first of these was PhoneGap, which aimed to offer developers an HTML5-based toolkit for building native apps. Developers could build using the technologies they were already familiar with for the Web, but access key native device capabilities in a cross-platform manner. As an open source tool, PhoneGap grew in popularity.
To help get a better understanding of the options and benefits of different mobile app dev strategies, we've created this helpful infographic that you're free to view and share. Click on the image to see the full infographic.
With Flash under assault and on the wane, and the industry moving toward mobile and cloud services, Adobe looked to get in the game with the acquisition of PhoneGap (sometimes known as Apache Cordova). This was under the broader context of Adobe looking to protect its franchise in content app development (but using HTML5 tools), and looking to offer more cloud services, with the benefit of their subscription recurring revenue business model.
Has Adobe been able to replace Flash for Mobile with PhoneGap?
By most accounts, the code-base and features of PhoneGap have evolved little; there are no major new cloud services to go along with it (the PhoneGap Build service, a paid premium service, has been the only offering to emerge, and that was already available in beta when Adobe acquired Nitobi). While releasing the technology into open source under Apache Cordova is an important gesture, not pushing forward and innovating on the framework and associated services is a let down.
Part of the result is that the field for hybrid app platforms is very much still wide open, and at a time when global demand for apps is surging and we have a serious labor and talent shortage.
What are we doing about this?
For the past 1+ years, we have been re-envisioning what hybrid app development platforms should be like, including not just the app development model, the role of HTML5 vs. native, but also the entire lifecycle and needed infrastructure to deliver a great user experience and get business value from your apps.
We've just launched a major update to the platform today, including the ability to use native code (Objective-C or Java) within your HTML5-based apps, including a bunch of supported 3rd-party integrations. We're trying to deepen the Native capabilities in Hybrid Apps.
We also launched a new Push API that includes the ability to deliver cross-platform push notifications that can be targeted and segmented by user, social group, and other labeled segments.
For those of you familiar with other mobile and hybrid app dev models, I'd encourage you to read this developer's review of App Cloud and PhoneGap.
We've also published a new comparison guide to App Cloud and PhoneGap.
The Brightcove Doctrine
For those of you that are new to Brightcove as an app platform provider, we are many of the people behind great Web development platforms including ColdFusion, HomeSite, JRun, Flash and Flex.
We are neutral. We don't have a horse in the race other than providing great tools to developers to deliver their dreams and innovate for their users. We're committed to cross-platform support for the device platforms that have broad adoption.
We are open. Our core frameworks and container model are free and open source; we're laddering off and integrating tightly with other popular open frameworks including Node, Markup, and jQuery.
We value the right intermix of simplicity and power. Like ColdFusion, JRun, Flash and Flex, we believe in delivering productivity and abstraction while not compromising on control wherever possible. And a big focus is on the developer user experience.
We believe that apps are a massive global market and that we are still in the 2nd inning in this game. The result is a surging labor market for app developers, and to meet the massive market demand we believe that Web developers must become an intrinsic part of the app economy.
Most importantly, the stakes here are far too high -- we're talking about putting innovators to work in the App Economy, and making every organization in the world more productive!


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(MEDIA GENERAL) – Rickie Fowler should be making headlines for his impressive play during the weekend's 2016 Ryder Cup, but instead, it's a viral photo.
American golfers dominated the 2016 Ryder Cup, defeating Team Europe 17-11 on Sunday to claim their first crown since 2008. To celebrate, the team posed with their significant others, trading kisses – all except Fowler who is playfully shrugging into the camera.
Perhaps that should be phrased "temporarily single." In the past year, Fowler has been tied to model Alexis Randock and former "Bachelor" contestant Lauren Barr. After posting the picture to his Instagram page, Fowler received several offers from female fans willing to substitute in for a smooch after his next big win.
Fowler earned two points for the Americans, winning in a foursome Friday while paired with Phil Mickelson and his Sunday singles showdown against Englishman Justin Rose.


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Results 1 to 2 of 2
#1 Baseball brouhaha goes into extra innings08-26-2008, 11:13 AM
This is a shame, to be punished for being too good!
quit trying
NEW HAVEN Parents are angry. There are lawyers involved. Conflicting and wild accusations are flying. The adults are fighting over the kids.
Sounds like a nasty divorce, but its actually a fight between a youth baseball league, one of its coaches and some parents.
The spirit of the league was community, family, well being, nurturing. Its an extended family and its been disrupted, said attorney Peter Noble, who represents Liga Juvenil De Baseball De New Haven, Spanish for Youth Baseball League of New Haven. The league is not affiliated with Little League baseball.
The fighting started this week when Coach Wilfred Vidro refused a directive by league officials to replace 9-year-old pitcher Jericho Scott, whose pitching they say is so hard, fast and accurate that it might frighten or discourage other players.
Despite being told by league officials that there would be no game Saturday morning at Criscuolo Park, Vidro, who refuses to leave the league and his team, which refuses to disband, showed up ready to play.
Parents posted brightly-colored signs and many wore handpainted T-shirts with sayings such as, Lets be fair, its all about the kids, Theyre only kids, and Let Jericho Pitch.
Jerichos parents, Leroy and Nicole Scott, said Saturday they just want their son and his team to be given the right to continue their winning season, 8-0 so far, and go to the playoffs.
And they are already talking with a prominent New Haven lawyer to help get the team there.
Attorney John Williams will meet with the Scotts Monday, but had already heard enough from them by Saturday to proclaim, Holy smoke!
You dont have to be learned in the law to know in your heart that its wrong (removing Jericho as pitcher), Williams said. Now you have to be punished because you excel at something?
Jericho, who said Saturday he was sad because there was no baseball game, practiced with his teammates, his drive to throw hard and fast apparently unaffected by the controversy.
Noble said they cancelled the game for fear the adults bickering would create an unhealthy environment.
We didnt want an escalation of the kind of tumultuous behavior caused by the coaching staff, he said.
Nicole Scott said Jericho feels its his fault the team cant play.
I told him things like this happen in life and the message is, Dont give up, stay focused and be positive, she said.
She said league officials came to their house about five months ago to recruit Jericho, who also plays in another league.
Officials wanted him for a stronger team because of his pitching talent, but the Scotts wanted him to stay grounded and help a less experienced team succeed, she said.
I said, This is not always going to happen in life youre not always going to be number one, she said.
Leroy Scott said he threw the ball a lot with Jericho since he was young, but that Jericho is a talented natural athlete and shouldnt be penalized because he applies himself.
If you keep these kids on the field you keep them off the streets, Leroy Scott said. Id rather have him (Jericho) in the midst of this controversy on the field than dealing drugs on a street corner.
Coach Vidro and the Scotts claim the real reason league authorities want Jericho on a team other than Vidros Wilpower Fitness is because they have a vested interested in another team that is second in the standings and cant get to number one past Jerichos winning arm.
:Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.
I wondered why the rock was getting larger. Then it hit me.
Truly sad, but not surprising anymore.
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Since this was the first such class I had taught, I misjudged my timing and ran out of time for questions. I'll try to do better if I have another such opportunity in the future. Fortunately, the teacher had the students write up questions for me before the class, andI brought those home with me to answer here on my blog.
I ask that if you are under the age of 18 and reading this blog, especially if you go to the school where I spoke, ask your parents' permission before proceeding. I am comfortable discussing any of these topics and teaching from an honest, evidence-based, and God-honoring perspective about the incredible design of our bodies, but I do not want any angry parents calling or emailing me or the school.
Here are the teens' questions, continued. Part 2 will be just on cycles and fertility. (Here is the link to Part 1.)
- "Why is it when you find out you're pregnant, you don't have your period like you normally would?" "Ask about periods (All of the period)." "Can you explain ovarian menstrual cycle?" "Discharge?" "What is estrogen?" "Birth control?"
These are great questions, and I'm glad they were brave enough to ask. Since these questions are all interrelated, I'll try to segue my answers. I'd really love to do a detailed class specifically for teens and young 20's about menstrual cycles, but it would require a permission slip, for certain.
I'm going to have to keep the explanation really basic, because literally, entire books have been written on the topic. In fact, I'll go ahead and recommend a few:
Cycle Savvy: The Smart Teen's Guide to the Mysteries of Her Body for mature pre-teens and teens who are ready to know the details about their body's workings.
The Care & Keeping of You 1: The Body Book for Younger Girls for girls age 8 and up, with very basic explanations of puberty and cycles.
Taking Charge of Your Fertility: The Definitive Guide to Natural Birth Control, Pregnancy Achievement, and Natural Health book and website. For very mature teens and any adult woman who wants to thoroughly understand her reproductive system. I highly recommend that all women read this before they get married and/or plan a pregnancy.
It calls itself the "Definitive Guide," and that's no exaggeration. Ladies, do you have irregular cycles? Hard cramps? Possible endocrine or hormonal problems or imbalances? Want to know WHAT'S UP DOWN THERE??? Get this book, start charting your cycles as it teaches you (which involves a lot more than just circling days on a calendar!), and take your findings to your midwife, GYN, or OB. Don't have one yet? Most midwives can take care of all your well-woman care, tests, etc. The midwifery model of care for pregnancy and birth is the most evidence-based for the majority of healthy women, so why not get established with a midwife from the start? If you have a rare or high risk situation, they will refer you to a specialist. This collaborative care model is one that we are already familiar with. For instance, most healthy people do not have a cardiologist. They likely see a general/family practice doctor, who will refer them out to a cardiologist if some high risk situation comes up. It's like that with midwifery.
How to condense this to a very basic overview? This is going to be really long, I can tell. Here's a better explanation from a .gov, trustworthy & not coming from a corporation that's trying to make a buck off you by selling disposable products and making you feel bad about yourself in the process.
From Womenshealth.gov:
What is menstruation?
What is the menstrual cycle?
What happens during the menstrual cycle?
Menstruation (men-STRAY-shuhn) is a woman's monthly bleeding. When you menstruate, your body sheds the lining of the uterus (womb). Menstrual blood flows from the uterus through the small opening in the cervix and passes out of the body through the vagina. Most menstrual periods last from 3 to 5 days.
When periods (menstruations) come regularly, this is called the menstrual cycle. Having regular menstrual cycles is a sign that important parts of your body are working normally. The menstrual cycle provides important body chemicals, called hormones, to keep you healthy. It also prepares your body for pregnancy each month. A cycle is counted from the first day of 1 period to the first day of the next period. The average menstrual cycle is 28 days long. Cycles can range anywhere from 21 to 35 days in adults and from 21 to 45 days in young teens.
The rise and fall of levels of hormones during the month control the menstrual cycle.
In the first half of the cycle, levels of estrogen (the "female hormone") start to rise. Estrogen plays an important role in keeping you healthy, especially by helping you to build strong bones and to help keep them strong as you get older. Estrogen also makes the lining of the uterus (womb) grow and thicken. This lining of the womb is a place that will nourish the embryo if a pregnancy occurs. At the same time the lining of the womb is growing, an egg, or ovum, in one of the ovaries starts to mature. At about day 14 of an average 28-day cycle, the egg leaves the ovary. This is called ovulation.
After the egg has left the ovary, it travels through the fallopian tube to the uterus. Hormone levels rise and help prepare the uterine lining for pregnancy. A woman is most likely to get pregnant during the 3 days before or on the day of ovulation. Keep in mind, women with cycles that are shorter or longer than average may ovulate before or after day 14.
A woman becomes pregnant if the egg is fertilized by a man's sperm cell and attaches to the uterine wall. If the egg is not fertilized, it will break apart. Then, hormone levels drop, and the thickened lining of the uterus is shed during the menstrual period.
OK. So does that answer most of it? For the specifics of the questions asked, the reason a woman her period is that she ovulated approximately 2 weeks before, and the egg was not fertilized. The uterine lining builds up in preparation to make a cozy home for a fertilized egg and sustain it as it grows. If no fertilized egg implants into that rich, nutritious (for a new baby) uterine lining, then the body sheds that lining in preparation to start all over again. So, when a woman misses her period due to pregnancy, there aren't periods during the pregnancy because the fertilized egg implanted, began to grow, and used that lining. Did I explain that well in lay terms?
If a mother exclusively breastfeeds (that means nursing on baby's cue's around the clock, with no bottles or pacifiers and no other foods or supplements), then there is a 98-99% chance that her fertility (periods) will be suppressed for 6 months. This is a great benefit in helping with natural child spacing.
What is discharge?
The vagina is self-cleaning. It doesn't need douches, sprays, creams, or lotions. In fact, any of these products can disrupt its healthy, normal pH level and make it have an odor or even cause an infection. Advertisers want to make women feel self-conscious and embarrassed about your lady parts. Well, guess what, ladies? Your parts are awesome! You were fearfully and wonderfully made. Your body is not a lemon, and it deserves some respect! News flash: lady parts were never meant to smell like spring rain. They're supposed to smell like lady parts. In fact, be very cautious what soap you use in that area, because even soaps can throw off the pH of the area or cause a reaction to fragrance, colors, or other ingredients in the soaps. You might be best off just to use fresh, clean water.
So, where am I going with that? What I'm trying to convey is that discharge is not dirty or gross. It's a normal part of our fertility & cycles, part of a healthy body. Part of discharge's function is the body's self-cleaning, but much of its purpose is intricate and amazing: it is cervical fluid produced to help sperm get to the cervix during fertility. Like I said, all the details of it fill a book, but by observing your pattern of normal discharge daily, and getting to know your body, you can know when you are fertile or not fertile. This requires a lot more reading and training than this blog, just as a disclaimer. I'm just introducing the concept to you, perhaps for the first time that you are hearing it, that the texture and consistency of normal vaginal discharge is directly related to fertility and the body gearing up for someday, when you are ready to be pregnant. Pretty impressive, huh?
If you get to know your body's norm, it will be obvious to you if something is *not* your norm. If there is a foul odor to discharge or it's a color you've never seen before, or if there is itching, this could possibly indicate an infection that needs treatment. Please see your midwife or doctor.
On to birth control. There are many options for birth control, both pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical. Not many women are advised of the risks of pharmaceutical birth control methods, so if it's something you're considering, I highly recommend you do a lot of reading to make sure the benefits outweigh the risks in your instance.
Some teens are advised to go on birth control pills because of irregular or very hard and painful periods. This isn't the only option out there. If this is your situation, you might be able to find a midwife or naturopath who can give you options that don't have the short- and long-term risks of pharmaceutical birth control methods. Rather than using a drug to artificially stimulate the body to have periods, it can be beneficial to figure out what the underlying problem is that's causing the symptoms of pain or irregular cycles, and treat THAT instead of treating the symptoms.
Here's one article on the subject. "Natural Alternatives to Hormonal Contraceptives"
It goes through a long list of risks and side effects of chemical/hormonal contraceptives and gives alternative options.
Here's my awesome Pinterest board for Fertility & Cycles. I update it regularly with newly bookmarked articles.
So that's that. Any other questions? I hope I didn't wear you out with too lengthy a response, but I wouldn't know how to answer it with less!
Here is the link to Part 1 of this series. Part 3 is upcoming!


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Alabama - Repton
Sales Tax Calculator of Repton for 2020
Calculation of the general sales taxes of the city Repton, Alabama for 2020
How 2020 Sales taxes are calculated in Repton
The Repton, Alabama, general sales tax rate is 4%. The sales tax rate is always 6%
Every 2020 combined rates mentioned above are the results of Alabama state rate (4%), the county rate (2%). There is no city sale tax for Repton. There is no special rate for Repton.
The Repton's tax rate may change depending of the type of purchase.
Please refer to the Alabama website for more sales taxes information.
Repton city rate(s)
6% is the smallest possible tax rate (36475, Repton, Alabama)
The average combined rate of every zip code in Repton, Alabama is 6%
Last sales taxes rates update
The last rates update has been made on July 2020.


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The Italians call them Granfondo, the French Cyclosportif, the English, the Belgians and the Dutch Cyclosportives. The name changes but the substance remains the same. Granfondo are long-distance amateur or competitive cycling events.
This type of event has very specific features: a mass start, roads closed to traffic, road assistance (routes signposted, technical support, well-stocked refreshment stations), a stunning finish-line area and a party atmosphere during and after the event. It is open to competitive cyclists but also cycling enthusiasts that just love pedalling!
In fact, Granfondo are not traditional races but genuine "bicycle festivals" in which thousands of cyclists of all levels can participate and enjoy themselves.
Riccione and the surrounding area offer you the chance to take part in many Granfondo and, above all, to enjoy yourselves with us!


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Japan loves foreign products—Apple, BMW, and even Red Wings shoes are popular here. Yet, there's the Xbox 360. Gathering dust on store shelves in cities like Tokyo and Osaka. Unloved. People in Japan just don't care! Poor Xbox.
The original Xbox was a failure in Japan. The Xbox 360 was a failure in Japan. Microsoft's gaming console and Japan just don't get along. Its heart already belongs to two other hardware makers: Nintendo and Sony.
So what can Microsoft do to win over Japanese gamers?
Here is some unsolicited advice from 2ch, Japan's largest online forum.
"Give away the console for free".
"From the moment PS4 comes out, a flawless victory is impossible."
"If they did a better job of promoting Kinect, it would do well."
"Stop calling it Xbox. It might be cool over there, but in Japan, the name is very strong and seems very junior high. Thus, it doesn't appeal to women and children."
"Name it PlayStation. Well, that might be impossible..."
"It seems hard to sell as a game machine. Bundle it with Kinect and brain training software, pegging it to education, and try to venture into a new market share."
"If they did a better job of promoting Kinect, it would do well."
"[The Xbox brand] looks like it's been a mistake. If you compare it to Apple, it seems hillbilly. I don't think they should do any promotion."
"They should put a boy band in their commercials. Oh wait."
"There's nothing. (Quick reply)"
"The image for 'Box is that it only appeals to core male gamers, so they need to make and promote content that appeals to everyone and doesn't stink of Western games."
"Buy Nintendo."
"I want them to continue flooding us with RPGs."
"Buy Square Enix. Make Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy exclusive. Then, they'll win Japan."
"I'll buy it if they put out a Halo and a Gears of War. In truth, the PC is enough for me."
What does Japan matter? With this generation drawing to a close, the Xbox 360 and the PS3 global sales numbers are neck and neck. If Japan were to tip slightly more in Microsoft's favor, the Xbox 360 could take a decisive lead. Only 1.59 million Xboxes have been sold in Japan; in comparison, ten million PS3s have been sold and over 12 million Wii consoles. Will Microsoft have better luck with its next console?
In case you missed it, here's Kotaku's exclusive report on the next Xbox.
次世代XBOXが日本で売れる方法を考えよう [2ch]
(Top photo: おたスケ)
Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.


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One of my favourite things about water is that it is constantly changing. As a photographer, a 'writer of light', few things react as utterly and dramatically to changes in light as water does. So, too, wind and other factors affect the character of water surfaces so that from season to season, day to day, even minute to minute, water can be smooth, patterned, violent or sedate.
I took this series of shots over a time-period of less than a week. All but two were taken during a half-hour visit to a beach at dusk about five minutes from where I live. Another was taken just up the coast a day or two later. The last (I'm sure you can guess which) was taken a couple of days later in the Canadian Rockies, a hemisphere and two seasons away.
I like this little ensemble because it reflects a host of different characters of water. The first is a contrasty and dappled texture reaching to the horizon. Others are silvery, smooth, rippled and sparkling. One shows a rock wrapped in seaweed amidst an oily smear of pastels that an impressionist might appreciate. In another, sunlight weaves like a tangle of threads through the transparence. Flushing through frozen banks, water photographed at high speed also freezes, catching in the sunlight, in bubbling forms like the ice-baubles growing on either side.
One of the joys of photography is that no two scenes are ever truly identical. Light changes. The sun's angle shifts, clouds soften hues, shadows shrink and stretch. Nothing reflects this quite like water. While none of these scenes is something I would call truly spectacular or outstanding as a photographic subject, taking a moment to appreciate the interplay between light and water adds a layer of interest that, for me at least, makes the images worth capturing, and worth considering for a moment.
Locations: Port Phillip Bay, Victoria, and Bragg Creek, Alberta


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To get yourself in the right mode and mood this holiday, I propose a little writing exercise. I also suggest pen on paper but feel free to do it on your screen if you like. Just that sometimes pen on paper brings you to a different place. For each of these set the timer for 7 minutes. Keep your pen or keyboard moving the whole time. Ok. You ready?
1. The kids are home for holiday break. You're off from work. The shopping is done and you're all just home. With the timer going, write out your dream day At home with your kids.
2. It's Christmas Day. The presents are opened. Everyone's home. Describe the perfect scenario – remember to write about the feeling.
3. Now, as you look back on what you wrote, what are some things you can do now to help set up the ideal? Are there certain gifts you can give to help create the scene? For example, if you picture all of you working together, perhaps new cookie cutters in each stocking? Or a big puzzle for the whole family. Or a new sketchpad and pencils for the family. If you picture yourself sitting in front of the fire or taking a family walk, are there certain tasks you can tend to ahead of time so that you can be as present as you want? Whatever you envisioned in your ideal scenario, find at least three things to help you get there. And if you can't get there this year exactly as you want, how can you create the feeling where you are right now? And what can you do to set the wheels in motion for next year?
Only by knowing what we really want, can we even begin to get there.
And if you have any revelations or aha's from this exercise, feel free to share in the comments.


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Kyrsten Sinema helped turn reliably red Arizona purple. Is it a midterm fluke or a new trend?
WASHINGTON – The 2018 midterm elections may not have turned Arizona solidly blue, but they did cast an increasingly purple sheen over what was once reliably Republican red territory.
Nearly a week after Election Day, Democrat Kyrsten Sinema emerged Monday night as the winner in the race for the U.S. Senate over Republican Martha McSally. Democrats also flipped a U.S. House seat in the midterms, giving them the majority in the state's congressional delegation for the next two years.
"Arizonans rejected what has become far too common in our country: name calling, petty, personal attacks, doing and saying whatever it takes just to get elected. It's dangerous, and it lessens who we are as a country," Sinema said. "Arizona proved that there is a better way forward. We can work with people who are different than us."
Also on Monday, Kathy Hoffman, another Democrat, was declared the winner of the statewide race for education superintendent. Other undecided statewide races for corporation commissioner and secretary of state showed the Democrats in the lead.
More:Kyrsten Sinema defeats Martha McSally to become Arizona's first female senator
Political analysts see the Democrats' gains as a sure sign the state that produced far-right conservative politicians such as former Gov. Jan Brewer and former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio now stands firmly in the competitive column.
"Arizona is officially purple," said Jennifer Duffy, who follows Senate races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report in Washington.
The shift has implications not only for how the state will be governed for the next two years, but for the 2020 presidential election and beyond.
"It looks like Arizona is going to be a battleground state in 2020," said Nathan Gonzales, editor and publisher of the nonpartisan newsletter Inside Elections.
Sinema's win marks the first time the Grand Canyon State has voted to send a Democrat to the Senate since 1988.
In Arizona's 2nd Congressional District, Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick, a former three-term congresswoman, defeated Republican Lea Marquez Peterson last Tuesday to win the House seat that McSally vacated to run for Senate. Kirkpatrick's victory gives Democrats a 5-4 advantage in the congressional delegation for the first time since 2012.
One bright spot for Republicans was the governor's race, where GOP incumbent Doug Ducey defeated Democrat David Garcia to win a second term.
Given those election results, it's a safe bet that Arizona will be in play in 2020 when President Donald Trump – who won the state by less than 4 percentage points – will be up for re-election and Democrats and Republicans will battle again for control of Congress, Duffy said.
For Democrats, "this is a state of potential new gains," she said. "Are they going to gain everywhere? Are they going to hold all nine seats in the (congressional) delegation? No. Not certainly in the foreseeable future. Let's see what happens when they redraw (congressional) lines."
Democrats and Republicans in Arizona will be eyeing another Senate race in two years, when there will be a special election for the remaining two years of the seat held for more than three decades by Republican John McCain until his death last August. Two years later, in 2022, that seat will be on the ballot again for a full six-year term, along with another race for governor.
Both contests present potential pickup opportunities for Democrats, Duffy said.
Still, Gonzales urged caution in extrapolating results from the midterm election onto the next presidential race. At the same time, "it would be a mistake to dismiss the 2018 elections out of hand," he said.
In 2016, for example, Hillary Clinton became the first Democratic presidential nominee to win Orange County, California, since 1936. While it would have been easy to dismiss her performance as an aberration, Gonzales said, it may have been the beginning of a trend. The vote count is still underway, but after last week's midterms, Democrats could end up representing five of the seven congressional districts that take in all or parts of Orange County.
Gonzales said it's too soon to know whether the Democrats' gains in Arizona signal a shift in voting trends in their favor.
"I don't know yet," he said. "I'm open-minded to that possibility, but just not sure. In order to have a trend, we need multiple cycles. I don't think we're going to know whether 2018 is a trend until we're in 2020."
Several factors helped Democrats turn Arizona from a reliably red state to one that is now competitive, said Bruce Oppenheimer, who studies elections as a political scientist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
Democrats have benefited from the state's growing Latino vote, he said, while older voters are being replaced by younger votes who hold different attitudes about political issues. An influx of new residents also has moved into the state, bringing with them diverse backgrounds and views that are not in sync with conservative Republican ideology, Oppenheimer said.
"You've got a real interesting state to study," he said.
While Arizona no longer favors the GOP as heavily as it once did, it's still a Republican state, Oppenheimer said.
But now, "it's not something where Democrats write it off and Republicans take it for granted," he said.
More:Arizona, Florida, Georgia: Nationally watched races still haven't been called
More:President Trump calls for end to Florida recount; tweets, without evidence, ballots 'massively infected'


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Naperville, IL -- (SBWIRE) -- 01/10/2014 -- Reportstack, provider of premium market research reports announces the addition of Global Messaging Security Market 2014-2018 market report to its offering
Analysts forecast the Global Messaging Security market to grow at a CAGR of 12.7 percent over the period 2013-2018. One of the key factors contributing to this market growth is the increasing popularity of cloud-based secure messaging. The Global Messaging Security market has also been witnessing increasing R&D spending by vendors. However, the increasing complexity of network infrastructure could pose a challenge to the growth of this market.
Global Messaging Security Market 2014-2018, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the Americas, and the EMEA and APAC regions; it also covers the Global Messaging Security market landscape and its growth prospects in the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.
Key vendors dominating this space are Cisco Systems Inc., McAfee Inc., Symantec Corp., and Trend Micro Inc.
Other vendors mentioned in the report are Microsoft Corp., Google Inc., Sophos, Clearswift Ltd., Proofpoint Inc., Barracuda Networks Inc., Panda Security SL, and Websense Inc.
Key questions answered in this report:
What will the market size be in 2018 and what will the growth rate be?
What are the key market trends?
What is driving this market?
What are the challenges to market growth?
Who are the key vendors in this market space?
What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?
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Roger Campbell
United States
Ph: 888-789-6604